Press Release

United Nations Leaders Welcome Vital Ratification of Optional Protocol On Child Soldiers

NEW YORK, 13 November 2001 - UNICEF

Executive Director Carol Bellamy and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu today hailed the tenth ratification of a protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which should help to protect children from being recruited and used as soldiers in armed conflicts. Governments that have ratified the protocol include Andorra, Bangladesh, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Holy See, Iceland, New Zealand, Panama, Romania and Sri Lanka.

"This represents a crucial step in the campaign to end the recruitment of children for armed combat and their use as soldiers. It is a milestone in the protection of children," Bellamy said. The protocol outlaws the involvement of children under age 18 in any hostilities and sets strict standards for the recruitment of those under 18.

The number of children under the age of 18 who are serving as soldiers is approximately 300,000 - and nearly half are believed to be in militaries or with armed opposition groups in Africa.

"Forcing children to fight adult wars is an act of cruelty that should be regarded as unacceptable to all civilized societies," Otunnu said. "The conditions which make children prey to such cruel exploitation - abject poverty and hopelessness, for instance - should also be regarded as unacceptable by the international community."

Bellamy and Otunnu emphasized that the ratification of the Optional Protocol is but one of several crucial steps in a longer campaign to end the use of children under age 18 as soldiers. The 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child set the minimum age for recruitment at 15. This protocol raises the bar.

Ms. Bellamy and Mr. Otunnu strongly urged the 78 governments that have already signed the Optional Protocol to move as swiftly as possible to ratify it. They also called on all other States to sign and ratify the protocol.

"The universal ratification and implementation of the Optional Protocol must remain a pressing priority on the international agenda," Bellamy and Otunnu said. "Every day that we delay, the toll on children increases - and that is intolerable. Our aim is to achieve 100 ratifications by the time of the Special Session on Children in the spring of 2002."

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For further information, please contact:

Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF Media Section, New York, (212) 326-7269,
jsedky@unicef.org

Mary Ellen Glynn, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, (212) 963-964